WinBowl history

The original Winbowl was written using the very first Microsoft Visual C compiler (which arrived on 23 1.44Mb floppy disks if you can remember what they are), back in 1985 for my own use as a league secretary on Windows 3.1. It continued to evolve, with other leagues using it in my centre in Burnley, and was first released on the internet in 1994. Since then the price has not changed, even though the program has had very many features added. I have never charged for an update. I know for a fact that there are people who bought the program then, and I am happy to say are still using the latest version today. The number of registrations has tailed off considerably over the last 10 years, yet almost every bowling alley I go in has Winbowl league standings pinned up.

When Micro$oft brought out Visual C++ 4, they changed a lot of stuff, and Winbowl would no longer compile! I had to continue to use the original compiler. This started to cause problems when first Vista, and more recently Windows 7 came out. (No free updates there!) I did forsee this, and started a complete rewrite of the user interface 3 years ago, but was able to port over the original calculations for scores etc, and with the assistance of some dedicated beta testers, I am now happy to release Winbowl 2.0.